


Shaping Two Futures

by HighOnTrombone (PhoenixAlmighty)



Category: Geneforge, Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 13:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21016559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixAlmighty/pseuds/HighOnTrombone
Summary: From Castle Wulfenbach, the Baron visits Terrestia, the world one of his generals came from, to negotiate an alliance with its government. In Sturmhalten, Tarvek Sturmvoraus talks with another Terrestian about allying with the rebellion that government faces.





	Shaping Two Futures

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Girl Genius Event Week 2019's Niche Crossover/AU Day, and I do mean _niche._

General Alwan gazes upon the dormant portal. “And you’re sure it will open into somewhere in Terrestia?”

Next to him, Baron Klaus Wulfenbach shrugs. “I can’t be sure of anything until I’ve seen it working with my own eyes. The only previous work we could base the technology on was from the English Sparks who have been working on higher-dimensional travel; we’re lucky that the energy readings we got from you in the aftermath of your passage inspired some of the Sparks who saw them to use the unique signature as a homing beacon, and it still took two years. I’ve looked over the design, though, and I believe it should work.”

Alwan nods and resists the urge to sigh. “I’ve felt this before, this uncertainty about whether a new technology or magic will work the way its creator says it will. I hate it — more so when the course of the future could hinge on it.”

The Baron looks pensive. “I must confess that I find it a refreshing change from the challenge of running a continental empire, if only because the new thing is occasionally something that will _ help _ me instead of making yet another mess that I have to send someone to clean up.”

“Even if it does work, you shouldn’t start celebrating just yet,” Alwan warns. “The Shapers may have great power, but the rebels stole some of it for themselves and spent years building up forces in secret, and with the element of surprise on their side, they were able to take much of eastern Terrestia. Given the chaos and general unpredictability of the strategic situation last I knew of it, I can make no guarantees about the state of any part of the continent.”

The Baron opens his mouth to reply, but whatever he is about to say is cut off by a shout from one of the technicians near the portal’s control panel. “Herr Baron! The portal is ready to be turned on!”

“Then what are you waiting for? Do it!”

Alwan looks over his shoulder to check the hundred soldier clanks behind him. All seem ready. They will come through alongside him and the Baron in case they come across any rebels or other unsavory characters.

In most cases, Alwan would be reluctant to have the leader of the nation he wants to ally with come into a potentially dangerous situation such as this. However, he has seen the rebels fight, and he has seen the Baron fight, so he is not concerned for the Baron.

The edges of the portal glow blue. The area inside flickers the same color before resolving into a forest where beings — some human, some not — dart between the trees, casting spells, breathing fire, spitting acid, swinging swords, and generally trying to kill each other. The combatants of one side wear no emblem; those of the other wear the distinctive [ three-part circle ](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/geneforge/images/7/73/Shapersymbol.png/revision/latest?cb=20110223113713) that the Shapers use as a sigil.

The Shapers still fight. Good. Alwan will render aid to ensure they win.

Without waiting for the Baron’s signal — they have already agreed that Alwan, as the one with experience in this land’s methods of war, shall have military command of the Baron’s forces unless the Baron overrides him — Alwan barks, “Clanks! Forward! Aid the Shapers!” As the clanks raise their rifles and charge, aiming for the rebel soldiers, Alwan scans the battlefield for any high-value targets. He finds one in the form of a drayk, a twenty-foot-long creation that a Europan might call a dragon if its wings were large enough to allow it to fly. Though creations of both sides almost never bear any sigil to declare their allegiance, Alwan knows that any drayk on a battlefield will be allied with the rebels; their existence is illegal under Shaper law, and any Shaper finding one is duty-bound to destroy it, though this is easier said than done.

On his own, Alwan would find it difficult but doable. With the Baron at his side, killing the drayk will be a nearly-assured success.

With the Baron close on his heels, Alwan sprints for the drayk, drawing his sword. While on the way, he observes that the Shaper forces, while as surprised as the rebel ones, are beginning to work with their new allies with admirable quickness. Excellent. He gets close to the drayk and strikes at its eye, but it jerks its head back and breathes a gout of flame at him and the Baron. Alwan rolls to the right, the Baron to the left, and they move to flank the beast. It turns to face Alwan, lashing at the Baron with its tail.

Alwan can see the logic in choosing to face the Shaper rather than the unknown, but that was the wrong move; the drayk should have gotten out of the flank as quickly as possible, as turning its back on the Baron is at least as certain a death sentence as turning its back on Alwan himself. The Baron proves it by leaping over the swiping tail and driving his sword into the drayk’s back. It roars in pain, thrashing about to try to dislodge the Baron, but he is gripping the drayk’s wing joints to avoid being thrown, and the distraction gives Alwan an opening to ram his sword through the roof of the drayk’s mouth. Alwan shoves the head off his blade and searches for the next target. As luck would have it, the target finds him.

Alwan’s magical senses warn him of the incoming spell just in time for him to duck and let it fly over his head. He spins to face its source: a woman with a cold, angry, arrogant sneer on her face, clothed in a robe that imitates those worn by the Shapers themselves. A rebel lifecrafter, whose waxy, cracked, glowing skin shows that she has been illegally Shaped again and again, past the point where the well-known mental effects become more trouble than they are worth.

The lifecrafter waves a hand, and a flash of light heralds her creation of a battle alpha: a large, strong, red-furred, moderately-intelligent humanoid that is often used as a shock trooper. Alwan has no time to make any creations of his own before the lifecrafter is casting another spell at him, this one a bolt of ice. He darts to the side to dodge it and calls to the Baron, “You handle the battle alpha! I’ll take the lifecrafter!”

He has told the Baron enough about Terrestia during the years he has spent in Europa that the Baron already knows which is which, as if it weren’t obvious enough from context. Battle alphas are strong, fast, and tough, but the Baron has taken on more dangerous foes in single combat and prevailed. He will have no problems defeating the creature.

Alwan closes range with the lifecrafter. He could draw the sidearm at his hip and shoot at her from a distance, but she will be used to fighting at range, and he does not know if the armor she undoubtedly wears beneath her robe will stop a bullet. Getting close will, hopefully, push her to start making mistakes. Three more dodged spells, and Alwan is upon her. A slice across her torso is deflected by what feels like chitin armor. She makes her panic evident with a sloppy blast of fire that Alwan barely even has to dodge before stabbing his sword through her armor and into her stomach.

He considers it a minor personal failure that he lets his guard down enough for her to punch him in the face, shove herself off his sword, and cast a healing spell on herself, but it matters little. She could have augmented that punch with magic; that she did not think to shows just how rattled she is. Alwan will kill her without much more trouble.

The lifecrafter thrusts out her hand, and acid mist sprays from her palm at Alwan. He aborts his lunge in favor of getting out of its way; an ice bolt he might have been willing to take, but acid he is much less sanguine about. Instead, he tosses his sword to his left hand and draws his sidearm. Now that he knows her armor is chitin, he knows it will not stop bullets, and her look of shock when he puts three rounds into her center mass is his cue to finish her off by decapitating her.

He looks around. The Baron has long since killed the battle alpha, and the Wulfenbach clanks are helping the Shaper forces mop up the last of the rebels. There is little left for him to do other than make contact with the Shaper commander so that the diplomacy can begin.

* * *

“Ah, Greta. Is that the report on Baron Wulfenbach’s excursion into Terrestia? I’ve already read it, but I was wondering if you had any insights I was missing.”

Greta sips at her coffee before she answers Prince Tarvek. “To give you insights you’re missing, I need to know which ones you have.”

“General Alwan’s belief that a Shaper-Wulfenbach alliance will crush the lifecrafter rebellion seems a little optimistic to me, considering that he knows Wulfenbach has enemies who would love to ally with the rebels.”

Greta smiles. “Ah, but he doesn’t know that those enemies know where he went or that they can get there themselves, and I’m almost certain he doesn’t know that I’m here. After all, I didn’t learn of his presence in Europa until we’d been here for two months, and I’ve taken pains to stay beneath the empire’s notice. Given what he knows, his conclusion is fairly reasonable.”

Tarvek nods. “Though no less wrong for it. What little Alwan saw of Terrestian tactics seems to be about the same as you remember from two years ago. Not much to talk about there, except that the presence of a human lifecrafter means the rebellion hasn’t been completely taken over by the drakons —” Tarvek breaks off as Greta shakes her head. “— no? Why not?”

“From Alwan’s description, that woman had overShaped herself in search of ever more power, which is exactly the kind of thing that the drakons would encourage... not that it was uncommon among lifecrafters who had no contact with the drakons.”

Tarvek frowns. “How do you come to that conclusion? I was under the impression that self-Shaping had no drawbacks.”

Greta gives Tarvek a look. _ The rest of the conspiracy hasn’t been sharing everything with you, has it? Dangerous, to keep one of the two people their whole plan rests on out of the loop. _ “Oh, it has several, and that’s why I only did it sparingly when I was in Terrestia.

“There are two types of device that are used to Shape a person in the way that rebels do and Shapers forbid: Geneforges and canisters. A Geneforge is a pool of charged, distilled essence and various equipment and machinery to keep it functional. When used, it grants some basic abilities, such as the ability to shoot fire from one’s hands or heal minor wounds, and lays the groundwork for future changes. Canisters are, well, glass canisters that contain essence of a similar type to Geneforges, but most only grant a single ability, though what that ability is varies. Unlike a Geneforge, a canister is single-use and portable, so people have to keep making them, but they can go to their users instead of the other way around.

“Both Geneforges and canisters work by rewriting part of the user’s being, although _ which _ part I’ve never been entirely clear on. However, if you overuse them, the side effects include arrogance, shortened temper, loss of empathy, and megalomania, and they’re addictive to boot. Use few enough, or space them out far enough, and you can avoid most of it.” This is what Greta did, and it is why she retained enough of her faculties to rise as far in the rebellion’s ranks as she had before coming to Europa.

Tarvek hums as he takes in the information. “I see. And you said that the drakons would encourage using too many of these?”

“They would. They care only for their own power, but they use the reason I joined the rebellion, which is to make Terrestia a place where creations would have more rights than the Shapers give them now, as a smokescreen to get more people to fight for them. If they get more lifecrafters to overuse canisters, that would allow them to take those who believe as I do about Shaper tyranny and make them forget those beliefs in favor of their own quest for ever-greater power. Hopefully the human rebels retain enough influence within the greater rebellion to have kept that from happening so that a rebel victory doesn’t result in a state as tyrannical as the Shaper government but headed by the drakons.”

Tarvek is silent for a moment. Greta waits for him to marshal his thoughts until he says, “I see. Moving on to the strategic situation on Terrestia, it looks like the rebels hold the eastern part of the continent and the Shapers the western part, but the rebels are making a push from Burwood Province into the Okavano Fens. That seems like an ideal place to send military aid to the rebels.”

The continent of Terrestia is shaped roughly like a square with the middle taken out and peninsulas jutting east from the top and bottom of the eastern side. Burwood Province and the Okavano Fens border the inland sea on the north; on the southern shore, the rebels hold most of Illya Province in the east, and the Shapers hold the Storm Plains in the west. Greta nods at Tarvek’s assessment. “It does, though we would need to ensure that the source of that aid doesn’t leak to anyone who shouldn’t know it.”

“Obviously. We’d also need to keep it from Wulfenbach that we were moving troops to parts unknown.”

Greta absently nods at Tarvek’s words, but her mind has been taken elsewhere by the shift to the topic of a Valois-rebel alliance. Like the rebellion, the Storm King conspiracy could usher in an era of peace and a better government than the one that already exists; also like the rebellion, the conspiracy has many who would rather simply place themselves at the top of the new order without doing anything to make the lives of the common folk better. She had been trying to maneuver the human rebels into a position of greater power than the drakon rebels before coming to Europa, but with a Valois-rebel alliance, the complexity of ensuring that the best parts of both groups come out on top will likely put it beyond her ability.

But Tarvek wants to help people, and he just might be able to pull it off.

And so, as the conversation shifts to the nearly-complete portal device through which Greta will soon travel to Terrestia, she is already considering how to persuade the young prince to help her ensure that both revolutions succeed without coming full circle.


End file.
